Review: Quartet in Autumn
Gaby Meares
This is only my second Barbara Pym novel (see my review of Excellent Women).
Quartet in Autumn is more contemporary - having been written and set in the 1970s, so is not as ‘quaint’ or removed as those set in the 1950s.
Edwin, Norman, Letty and Marcia work in an office - what they do is never discussed. However, they are all ‘of a certain age’ and know that as they retire, their small department will close. Although they would appear to have very little in common, they actually all share the same problem: loneliness.
They all live alone, and none of them have put any thought into what they will do when they retire, apart from ‘keep business’.
Pym touches on so many issues in this slender volume: growing old; feeling unloved or needed; and finding purpose and meaning in life after retirement. She gently probes into these people’s lives, uncovering prejudices, foibles, irritations and regrets, but never judging.
Letty wonders at one point: “No man had taken her away and immured her in some comfortable suburb where hymn-singing was confined to Sundays. Why had this not happened? Because she had thought that love was a necessary ingredient for marriage? Now, having looked around her for forty years, she was not so sure. All those years wasted, looking for love!"
An air of melancholy does pervade this novel, and there is no avoiding the sadness of these characters’ lives. But there is never despair, and the novel has a hopeful conclusion.
I loved this novel. I think Pym has an exceptional ability to peel away the protective layers of her characters, and share their private thoughts with eloquence and perception.
Highly recommended for readers ‘of a certain age’!